For seven months, the Federal Police have been trying to interview former President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva in the investigations into the so-called mensalão. So far, the requests have been made in the form of an invitation, which the recipient may or may not accept. If it were a subpoena, if he refused, he would have to be taken in by force, thus being forced to testify. Lula was said to have been aware of the facts and to have benefited from them through Marcos Valério, the main “operator” of the bribery scheme paid to politicians in exchange for voting with the government.
Valério formalized his complaints with the Attorney General’s Office in 2012, when he had already been convicted but had not yet been sentenced. When the sentence came, he received the longest sentence: he was sentenced to over 40 years in prison for several crimes, including money laundering. In his testimony, he accused Lula of knowing about the existence of the mensalão and of having personally benefited from the scheme.
The publicist from Minas Gerais, who until then had been a figure restricted to the limits of his state, said that he transferred almost R$100,000 through the company of a former advisor to Lula to pay the then president’s personal expenses in 2003. He also stated that Lula and former Finance Minister Antonio Palocci interceded with the company Portugal Telecom so that the company would transfer R$7 million to the PT. Valério’s statements resulted in at least two police investigations, which are underway in Brasília and Minas Gerais. Six other procedures were opened by the Federal Public Prosecutor’s Office to investigate the accusations made by the mensalão operator. Of these, at least two have already been shelved, according to Folha de S. Paulo. The Lula Institute did not comment when contacted by the newspaper.
According to today’s Folha de S. Paulo, the former president (2003/2010) “avoids official documents for fear of political exploitation of his statements, especially now, at the height of the electoral campaign.” But in February, when police officer Andrea Pinho, responsible for investigating the allegations in Brasília, began to send out invitations, there was still no election.
The police officer has not yet managed to get her boss to agree to transform the invitation into a subpoena, as the situation requires. She only got what she did not ask for: she was removed from her position at the Federal Police Superintendence in Brasília in the same month of February. But she continued to lead the investigation.
Even though he is not required to testify, Lula could well help in the investigation that the police officer is conducting, in search of the truth. There are legal ways for him to refuse to testify to the officer, but, after all, both Lula and Dilma Rousseff have said – and now in their electoral propaganda – that the Federal Police only became independent after the PT took over the federal government. And the emergence of so many corruption scandals is precisely due to this new circumstance. Before, as the candidate for reelection pointed out, “everything was swept under the rug; now, that is no longer the case.”
Why then dodge the responsibility of a citizen? If Lula claims that he knew nothing about the illicit activities of his group of “crazy people,” it was time to, faced with the facts, demonstrate his innocence and contribute to the investigation of the responsibility of those at fault. His behavior resembles that of the military dictatorship.
Called to testify about torture in the barracks and public offices, General Ernesto Geisel, the third president of the exceptional regime, said that it was the work of “radical but sincere pockets.” In other words: a venial sin, redeemed with half a dozen creeds.
Would this also be the sin of the “crazy people” in the mensalão scheme? Or, once again, is what the PT says not to be taken seriously?
